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"III.--VERSION OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THIS DIALECT.
The Serampore mies. were the first to
undertake a Gujerattee version of the Scriptures.
When commencing the study of this dialect, they remarked that the Gujerattee
words which had
become familiar to them through the medium of the Sanscrit, the
Bengalee, and the Hinduwee, were
in the proportion of about six in seven. In 1807 they commenced
printing the Gospel of St. Matthew
in the Devanagari character, but owing to pecuniary and other circumstances
the work was afterwards
given up. It was, however, resumed in 1813, and the printing of the
work was commenced anew,
Gujerattee characters being substituted for the Sanscrit, as more
intelligible to the mass of the people.
An edition of 1000 copies of the New Testament was completed in 1820.
The prosecution of this
version was, however, resigned about this period by the Serampore
mies. to the agents of the
London My. Society stationed at Surat, and, from the proximity of this
district to Bombay, it
was deemed advisable that future editions should be published under the care
of the Bombay Bible
Society. Some steps had been taken by this Society towards the
preparation of a Gujerattee version
of the New Testament, several years before the publication of the Serampore
version. Dr. John
Taylor, who had originally been sent to Surat as agent of the London
My. Society, and who
afterwards accepted a medical appointment under the Bombay Government,
offered his services in 1816
to the Bombay Bible Society, to superintend the translation of any portion of
the Scriptures into the
Gujerattee and Mahratta dialects. His proposal was accepted by the
society, and he was requested to
commence with the Gospel of St. Matthew. He completed the translation
of this Gospel in 1816, but
he died soon afterwards; and although a sum of money was voted by the
Calcutta Auxiliary Society
in aid of the publication of this version, it does not appear that an edition
of this Gospel was ever
issued. The translation of the New Testament was then carried on by
the Rev. Messrs Skinner and
Fyvie, of the London My. Society. They were stationed at Surat in
1815, and such was their
diligence in the study of the Gujerattee dialect, that in 1817 they had
finished a translation both of
the New Testament and of the Pentateuch, and had in part prepared it for the
press. In 1821,
assisted by the supply of Gujerattee types and by other grants from the
Parent and Auxiliary Bible
Societies, they printed an edition of 1000 copies of the New Testament.
In this version they appear
to have incorporated Dr. Taylor's translation of St. Matthew. Mr.
Skinner died shortly after the pub-
lication of the New Testament, but the translation of the Old Testament was
prosecuted by Mr. Fyvie,
and in 1823 an edition was carried through the press, printed with a view to
wider distribution in
separate portions, of which the average number of copies was 600. In
1825 a second and carefully
revised edition of the Gospels was published by Mr. Fyvie, under the
patronage of the Bombay Society,
and by the aid of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Of this
edition 1000 copies were given
away in Surat, and 3000 in the interior of the country, in the space of
little more than twelve months.
An edition of the entire Scriptures was then commenced in larger types, and
the New Testament was
finished at press in 1827. The second edition of the Old Testament
was completed the following
year: it consisted of 1000 copies of Genesis and the Psalter, and of 500
copies of the other books,
and it is gratifying to know that half of this edition was circulated within
a fortnight after its publi-
cation. The demand increased so rapidly that it was found requisite to
print forthwith another edition
of the New Testament, to consist of 3000 copies. From the spring of
1830, the period at which this
edition was commenced, to the day on which the printing of it was finished,
Mr. Fyvie devoted his
time to the revision and correction of the work. He compared every
passage with the Greek, and
consulted the best critical works on the original
text, while at the same time he endeavoured to render
the style more conformable to the Gujerattee idiom. This edition left
the press in 1832. In 1842
another edition of the New Testament was undertaken, to consist of 6000
copies of the Gospels and
Acts, and 3000 copies of the remaining portions: paper and other materials
were transmitted by the
Parent Society for the purpose. About the same period an edition was
issued of 1000 copies of the
Acts, printed in English and Gujerattee
in alternate verses.
Another version of the New Testament in Gujerattee has been
executed by the Rev. Messrs.
Clarkson and Flower, and an edition of 2000 copies has issued from the press.
A separate edition of
the New Testament in the Balborah, or Devanagari character, for the benefit
of the better educated
among the natives of Gujerat, and also for the people in the north of the
province, had been in con-
templation as long back as the year 1828, and according to late accounts it
appears likely that this
design will now be soon carried into execution.
It was subsequently resolved, by the Bombay
Auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society,
to proceed immediately with an edition of the New Testament according to the old translation of the
Surat edition, subject to such slight and necessary changes as the Reverends
Hormusjee Pestonjee
and Dunjeebhoy Nowrojee (at the time in Bombay, and who had undertaken to
correct the press), in
union with the Rev. Dr. Wilson, should approve of. This edition,
consisting of 2000 copies,
in 12mo., was completed at the Bombay press in 1853; and a subsequent edition
of 6000 Gujerattee
New Testaments, commemorative of the Bible Society's jubilee year, was issued
three years later.
Meanwhile, preparations for a revised edition of the entire Gujerattee
Scriptures have been in active
progress under the care of the Bombay Auxiliary Society, and an edition of
the New Testament,
according to this improved version, was completed at the mission-press in
Surat in 1856. The revision
and printing of the Old Testament have since been advancing, under the care
of a committee appointed
for the purpose. The work of translation is now (1860) nearly
completed, and the printing has ad-
vanced as far as the book of Job. Farther assistance towards supplying
copies of the revised version
of the Gujerattee New Testament, the necessity of which is urgently felt by
the mies. stationed
in the province, has been liberally granted by the Parent Society.
A polyglot edition of 500 copies of the Gospel of St. Matthew,
in English,
Sanscrit,
Marathi,
Gujerattee, and Hindustani,
was completed at the Bombay press in 1852."--1860 S. Bagster
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